The best Arkansas trails you've never heard of
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- Опубліковано 1 гру 2022
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Today we're trying a different kind of challenge. We've mapped out a route that hits almost every trail in the rough, raw, technical Passion Play and Marble Flats trail systems. And we're going to see if we can ride the whole thing in one day.
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Just ordered one for a Christmas gift to my son-in-law. I'm slowly converting him from roadie to mountain biker. Lol
As someone who grew up on 26er before suspension and progressed thru front suspension and fs 29ers, I am all in with Syd’s cross country trail comments. I love techie xc trails and find it odd that new trail builders take the tech out of climbs.
Agreed. Too manicured to be technically challenging
Modern mountain bikers are getting lazy
Ok my husband and I think you guys should make an eating guide with recipes and what kind of foods you should eat for different kinds of rides and races. Cookbook/eating guide
We are so impressed with you guys and love to watch all your videos 😊
Their sponsor Skratch Labs makes some recipie books. They are very reasonably priced as well.
Yes, the Skratch books are great. Also, we might be working on a cookbook 😉
@@sydandmacky we love all the food tips and everything in burritos! I know if I tried to eat a burrito while riding I would get hurt! 😂
I’ll be your first customer on the cookbook!
You could name it “Eating Wins Races”
Yes!!
Great minds think alike 😍😍
Syd you are totally on point with the current style of trails. I miss all the old janky trails. Not necessarily janky, but I cut my teeth riding in Wayne National Forest.
Osage Orange is also Bois d'Arc, even more commonly known as the hedge apple... That is such a memory thing for me, kicking those fruit as I strolled back to the house at the farm in the fall.
Syd only wrecked because she was not running the latest Maxxis mixed conifer-decidouos leaf tires with the granite specific center knobs🤣🤣
Small bit of trivia for Eureka Springs: Just outside town is one of the ten greatest building of the 20th century (according to the American Institute of Architects). Thorncrown Chapel designed by E. Fay Jones.
Cool!
There is actually quite a few historical Oddities of buildings in Eureka Springs. Several in the book of Ripley's Believe It or Not.
I believe the only church where you actually walk through the steeple to get into the church because it's built into the side of a hill.
The Basin Park Hotel is seven or nine stories I can't quite remember, but every story has a ground-floor exit.
The Crescent Hotel has got a lot of creepy history going on there.
Grand Central hotel has entrances into the underground of Eureka Springs underworld.
The Old Wagon Wheel bar used to have (and it may still) a big cave off of the women's bathroom. They used to have it plexiglass over so no one would go into the cave and disappear.
Eureka Springs has the biggest city park in the whole country and it also has the smallest city park in the whole country.
Yes the city park lake Leatherwood is about 900 acres and bigger than Central Park of New York City.
Many more strange oddities other than those. You can basically go on forever with their history and Oddities.
Jagged Axe just built the new Ore Chute trail at Maryland Mountain in Colorado, the gnarliest legal trail on the front range (it's a crazy steep double black tech trail).
If you get thru Nebraska at any point. Please stop in at Cycle Works in Lincoln. They are developing some mountain bike trails in the Iowa - Nebraska area. A new one is on the Platte River area. Many say Nebraska is flat but just in Lincoln we over 1500 feet elevation change on the trails. I enjoy your videos and lessons I but after a stroke and other health issues i ride my recumbent trike, but
I just watch and wish. It would be great to meet and watch you guys ride.
Nineveh was the city Jonah was called to go to but he went away from for a while.
These trails look awesome. I am new to MTBing so they are way above my level but maybe one day.
Should I not be concerned?
I`m 100% with you guys regarding that natural techy pedal trails are the best!!! Loved the footage, next time bring spare gopro battery :)
great to see you two riding for fun
loved the rear facing camera so we could see Syd charging at us!
This has to be some of the best trails to ride I've watched. Seems like alot of Arkansas trails I've watched are over done. Looks like you guys had a awesome time. Have to add to my list of trips if I ever get out that way. Thanks guys for the video while I sit here looking at my window at the snow.
Send It is a great game, you two did a really good job with it! Definitely one of my family's favorites!
That looked like such an awesome trail to ride!!
You’re right to call machine built trails “paved”. A good description for them is “paved dirt”. Seems that’s what all these modern bikes are made for with high speed stability. But on hand cut, old school singletrack, give me a 70 degree head tube angle any day.
Enjoyed the ride!! I can’t ride anymore due to injury and your rides provide me a great virtual ride!
That place is amazing!
Finding my way on the trail systems is sometimes more difficult than the riding. I felt this video.
I loved all the woohoos (mostly from Syd). That’s why we all ride, right?
Thanks for sharing! I nabbed the Strava route and will be adding this to my to do list when I do my return trip from my van pickup.
Sorry for all the wrong turns and double backs lol. You may want to edit it a bit on Strava to clean it up some. It's hard to follow a gps track on those trails because they are all so close together!
If yinz still like the tech xc trails, and haven't ridden Rothrock in PA come check it out.
The white river trail system at table rock state park in Branson mo has some really good old school techy xc trails. My favorite place to ride in sw Missouri/nw Arkansas
Good job guys. I would have gone OTB many times in those rocks.
Agree with your comments of enjoying "old skool" technical XC trails. Bike parks and flow trails have their place, but I prefer the non-machine built XC singletrack that takes advantage of the natural terrain for the technical challenge. I previously lived near a trail system that was deep in the forest with all kinds of technical rooty singletrack. Most of the local riders that I talked to never liked those trails due to the non-flow technical nature. I was disappointed recently to find a trail crew out there cutting out roots to dumb down the trails. When you think back to the origins of MTB much of the early riding began on hiking trails. In areas with a lot of population it's good to have bike parks with directional trails to reduce user conflicts, but I love the challenge of "natural" techy XC. Good stuff, thanks for your channel!
Eureka Springs really is amazing!!!
Leatherwood is great on your enduro bikes too!
Nice! My Nebo has really good trails in Arkansas also.
I get hurt every time I mountain bike. I stick to gravel and road cycling recently. Your videos are awesome and make me want to go back.. Good job, keep up the good work 👍
Keep at it…the mtn biking will get easier. Walk sections if you need to or have a spotter.
Stick to easier trails and take riding classes. And if course walk sections you don't feel like riding.
Well, it's good that we're not the only ones that get "great" directions when trying to navigate using a GPS (sarcasm). Lol.
At least you got out and explored. That's a small dose of what we're riding here in Southern Ontario, just more leaves and colder.
Stress less, ride more!
What's up guys love it. Thank you
Fun trails for sure. Its been a few years now for me. I like leatherwood but these are much more my speed. If you are still in the area stop thru tulsa on the way home. Trailbuilding galore going on here. So good here now my nwa trips have really slowed down and its only 2 hrs away!
Check out some of the rice cake recipes from the Tour de France team chefs. The 18:25 rock section was awesome!
Woop woop...another Syd n Macky video 🥳 ...gonna wait till this evening to settle down and enjoy it...thanks guys! edit...it was all good till the bike landed on my head...Classic 🙂
I'm a new subscriber I have really enjoyed all the videos I have watched. I ride all road, use to ride a lot of gravel roads.
We spent 2 days riding those trails. Had a blast on the old school stuff. You're going to hit up Devil's Den Park, while you're in Arkansas, hopefully!
THe 1st time I visited Bentonville Eureka Springs trail was the nearest place to MtB. Things have changed a bit since then.
Leaves are legit. Was just in Bella vista Wednesday. Made it hard to find the trail I mapped out. Got turned around a few times.
killer area (other than the theme). always great to get out on the trails but i dread the fall and the leaves, dry or wet
Hey Ben ,what's wrong with the theme, feeling a little guilty are ya? GOOD!
Hey guys, check out the Whaka100 MTB marathon event in New Zealand. Reckon it should be on your radar for next year.
Thanks for the great content!
Welcome to Arkansas!
Devils Den, Womble, Eureka Sps, Mena, Loads of good riding....
I had a blast at Leatherwood DH, though it was called Slaughter mountain, I didn’t know your place existed gotta hit it next time although Slaughter was great with weekend shuttles! P.S. don’t forget Howler bike park, MO it’s about an hour away from Passion Play and they have RV/van camping overnight it’s a fun bike park!
The road trip montage was great. How do you see the trail with all the leaves? Great video thanks.
Hahahahahaha you did a Jonah and Moby Dick mash-up! 😂
And that is why you don't want us on your Bible trivia team 🤣
Just add _banana_ and that's an Elvis burger - bacon, peanut butter and banana 👑
Sick
Love the videos! Are y’all gonna come back to 12 HMV this year?
Narrow, janky trails with frequent undulation are so hard to ride. Never let you settle into a nice flow and always have to plan ahead
I'm dying to know what camera, settings and editor you use. The quality of your videos, especially at speed is great. It's one of the reasons I like watching your videos.
GoPro Hero 9 Black set at 4k/30fps, high bitrate. Exported with Adobe Premiere at 4k 60fps 100mbps (the files are huge).
@@sydandmacky thank you so much. I have the same equipment, but use Filmora. I might need to change that.
Keep posting great content and have a great holiday season.
Have you guys made it down to Fayetteville? Mt. Kessler has quite a bit of “techy XC”. Definitely much more old-school than most of the rest of NWA trail systems.
What riding gloves are you both wearing in this video?
Syd is sending it. :-)
Those trails look like some of the trails here in the Knoxville area. I'll definitely add it to the bucket list. Looks fun. Thanks for the video. Oh yeah, no video of the crash? 😂
The gopro died literally seconds before 😭😭😭
@@sydandmacky Darn GoPro needs to make batteries that last forever. 😂
Trails look awesome. I’ve been to leatherwood but will need to head here next time. What bike was Macky on?
The Niner WFO 9 RDO. It's170 rear, 180 front, so a bit overkill but it allows us to do endurance rides together 😁
Great trails. Like the hills close to my hometown in Germany-Cologne. Why don't you 2 wear backpacks? EVOC makes great ones in all shapes and sizes. They even have built in back protection.
🔥🔥🔥🔥
Hey Syd and Macky, what are your winter gloves of choice? I ride a couple of hours from there and the Pearl Izumi Amfib Lite just isn’t enough down in the 30s for me.
Yeah, the Lites are often not quite enough for that cold. Give the Amfib (not lite) a try: bit.ly/3BlVPXP
Or even the Amfib lobster: bit.ly/3BfXm1y
@@sydandmacky have you mountain biked in lobster gloves before? Controls easy to use? Thanks!
You have to brake with two fingers instead of one, but besides that it isn't too bad! Definitely not as good of feel as normal gloves, but better that trying to control your bike when you can't feel your fingers 😜
Love y'alls vids. Quick question what head set are y'all using? My sons and i ride together as often as possible and would like to be able to talk to each other while riding. We're trying to be more awesome.
Thanks.
Hey Cleston. It's the Shokz OpenRun Pro. I have them too and great to listen to music while hearing around you.
Hay! Where did u guys camp!?!? Will be passing through there will stop if you can overnight there!
We stayed with friends so don't know if the PP allows camping. I think you can camp at lake leatherwood? But not sure
Cool trails ! Did Syd pick up her jacket ?
Yup, we forgot to include that part 🤦
Jesus!!!😇
Did I miss the mileage and the amount of climbing for the day? Looks like a long one!
Now that race season is over, how about bringing back Enduro S&M? Let's see some steep, chunky and super tech right, eh?
I’m having trouble finding the line where your riding…It looks like just rocks and woods😅
Do you have a link to the GPX file from your ride? I'm headed up there next week. I'd like to see how much slower I am than Macky.
www.strava.com/routes/3028359795725867914
Enjoy
Syd is correct. Nineveh is the city that Jonah the Prophet was sent to to warn the inhabitants that the city would be destroyed because of their wickedness. Quick question to you guys or your subscribers....Is the Fox Factory fork that much better for a recreational biker as compared to the Performance Elite version. Yes, the orange looks really cool, but the bike it comes on is more than $1K more because many parts are upgraded as well. Thanks!
We don't have much experience with the performance versions so we'll have to let someone else speak to that. The thing that does seem to be worth it though is if you're going from low-level brakes or drivetrain (anything below Shimano SLX or SRAM GX) to mid-range or higher (SLX/GX or higher).
Wow, love watching you guys ride. You should make a video about how to ride as a couple. My girlfriend rides but it's difficult to ride together, How do you guys manage?
for me and my SO, it is the greenest of green trails that we can ride together....even though we both can ride more. It isn't fun when one has to push that the other can climb, and isn't fun when we have to all hike-a-bike. Pushing ourselves to our limits is an individual sport.
It depends on the differences in your riding abilities. Syd and I are similar minus the fact that my power zones are higher than hers. So for us it's about figuring out how to get a similar workout so I generally ride a much heavier bike with beefier tires (in this case I was on the Niner WFO 9 RDO which is 170 rear, 180 front with DH tires) or we both ride e-bikes on different assist settings.
If the difference is technical ability, I would recommend letting the less skilled rider choose the trail and make sure it is well within their ability.
And always have plenty of food and water!
@@sydandmacky Thanks, you guys are awesome!
@@garysandel6549 Thanks gary!
what computers are you guys using?
Those are the Stages Dash cycling computers (link and discount code in the description).
@@sydandmacky thank you so much, I checked there I must have missed it!😅
Lol perfect plan.. create a wonderfully painful trail route and randomly bail out at the last second subjecting your friends to paaaaain
I heard there was a public trail
that Macky rode and did not fail
but you don't really care for tech trails, do ya?
It goes like this, gear four then shift
the minor fall, the major lift
the baffled Syd navigating "Hallelujah"
Excellently executed!
Never thought I'd offer biblical commentary on one of your videos, but as a seminary graduate, let me clarify that the verse "Vengeance is mine, I will repay" (Deuteronomy 32:35) in context isn't a threat from God, but a statement that the reader should leave vengeance to Him, not take it into their own hands.
Interesting. Definitely didn't know that!
Did Syd forget her jacket?
Nope, but we forgot to include that part 🤦
The boar are dangerous too. They can gore you really bad with their tusks. And you won’t outrun them either. Just climb a tree.
Lol snow blades are still a thing?
A biblical ride.....a testament to your fitness and skills......cycling is a broad church.....but seriously: jesus and mountain biking.?!?!....only in America
🤣🤣🤣
Ride specific food does suck. I've been packing baby food pouches so i can eat while riding. Really cheap, effortless and effective in my not-even-close-to-qualified opinion.
Nineveh is the city God asked Jonah to profesy to nut he ran and ended up in a whale.
as an old school rider (and forever hard tail rider), I want flowy non-techy, no air (i am all about the bass, I guess)....I am always amused by trails that Syd (a total pro-MTB racer at the pinnacle of fitness) has to walk up.....why does anyone make trails impossible for half the professionals to ride without hike a bike sections? If I never get air again, that's fine. I just want to ride and not puke. Also, would love to see episode on your layering choices. I always seem to be over or under dressed for cold and variable conditions.
Also an old school rider coming back into mtbing after 15yrs, last rode singlespeed now full dully 29er I love techie climbs, just not too steep, that's what makes the climb fun and makes the decent that much more gratifying. Flow trails are boring to me
One of the most gratifying things in mountain biking is getting though a near impossible section of trail. We need more of that.
Can you get baptized while your there?
gopro's are never reliable long term i swear..my 80$ budget action camera go's all day..My gopro 9 over heats,has audio clicking, batteries die super fast. good ride guys. Since im Atheist those trails might not welcome me lol! GET BACK YOU DEMON !!!!!
What's the deal with all the religious stuff? Reenactments? Biblical trail names? Is it the whole area? Like you're constantly being hit over the head with it, or is this just what you chose to show in your video?
the owners and operators are a Christian religious institution....I agree with your sentiment, and would have to decide real hard to visit and support myself....but if it isn't public (or we don't have strong separation laws) this is what you get. I feel like we'd all be better off to leave our religion, patriotism, and politics off the trail so we can ride in peace together, and always treat each other awesomely. Always be more awesome than you were yesterday.
You have a choice to go or not to go 🤷♂️
The trails are all on Great Passion Play property so that's the theme they went with. Despite being on private property, they are open to the public and free to access. And we decided to talk about the other stuff at GPP to give an idea of what the area is like and because we find it pretty unique.
@@garysandel6549 You can run but you can't hide. What is your measure of peace and awesomeness. Pick a clear black night and look up, He is peace, He is awesome!
I don't understand what you're offended by here, UNLESS you're thinking this is a public and therefore government-supported park. If the local Buddhists offered awesome trails on their property, I wouldn't be surprised that they called the trails "Dharma" "Bodhisattva" etc- I'd simply be thankful to them for letting me ride there.
Syd Ponytail distracts me a lot..
reminded me of a windshield wiper! 😀
I like it!. I hope I see it always. (i also appreciate the bottlecaps, so I know when I don't see ponytail).
The trails look great, but the creepy religious naming is going to keep me away. I've seen all the movies where backwoods religious zealots get a hold of city types like me.
Fix your Garmin mount
What would you do if you saw a white horse on Revelations?